There is no way around it: there are some days where fitting my planned workout into my schedule is impossible. On the days when chores and errands catch up with me and I don’t have much time to do a workout, I have a go-to workout that I know I can do in 45-50 minutes. On a day when life feels too busy and I’m tempted to blow my workout off, having a quick workout ready helps me to stay motivated and get out the door. My workout involves a short, 10 minute running warm-up, 15 minutes of short intervals, a 5-10 minute cool-down, and a short series of core exercises. Depending on what phase of training I am in and what my goals are, I may alter the pace, number, or duration of my intervals. During my aerobic building phase, I might run at a tempo that is slightly slower than my 5k race pace for 2 minutes, recover at a light jog for 1 minute, and repeat 4 more times. This bump in pace helps to mix up my tempo and keeps my legs feeling a bit quicker, but the effort isn’t so hard that I’m building up large amounts of lactic acid. Later in the season during an intensity phase, I might push the pace of those intervals right to my threshold, or do shorter 1 minute, all out efforts, with a full minute of recovery in between. This helps to build my anaerobic threshold, and develop my ability to recover as well. The warm up and cool down are really important for preventing injuries, and I try to resist the temptation to skip or cut short either. The light core session to close doesn’t necessarily build a lot more strength, like a dedicated strength session would be designed to do, but it gives me maintenance. I mix up the exercises, but an example workout might be:

• 3 sets of 50 crunches
• 3 sets of 20 pushups
• and 3 sets of 20 dips

I always end this workout with the same series, something that we used to call a “super set” on the college ski team. It consists of:

• 100 crunches (feet on the ground, curling my torso towards my knees, but not a full sit-up)
• 50 sit-ups to the side (alternating sides)
• 25 leg raises (some straight on, some to either side)
• and 100 more crunches to finish

Having one piece of my routine that is exactly the same each time lets me develop a benchmark for how my core strength is feeling. While your go to workout doesn’t need to mirror this, try to develop a workout that has definitive goals. If your time is pressed, a short series of intervals will be more beneficial for your fitness than a 30 minute easy jog, most of the time. Having some goals allows you to be focused during the workout, even if it is just for a short period of time. Your go-to workout can be any genre: cycling, running, swimming, or spinning are all good options depending on where you live and can do readily. Remember to build up your strength over time; trying to jump right into a “super set” tomorrow if you haven’t been doing a lot of core strength is a recipe to get injured. Good luck with your training, and stay motivated: it will pay you back in enjoyment many times over on your next climb! _____ Pete Van Deventer is a senior guide at RMI Expeditions, guiding climbs on Mt. Rainier, Mt. McKinley, and abroad. He calls Aspen, CO home, where he also teaches avalanche courses and is a fully-certified ski instructor.